1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a method of tracing the contour of a sampled figure, and particularly to a method of this type which is obtaining at high speeds the contour coordinates of a figure from the compression-encoded image of a figure or document.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
A conventional method of extracting contour coordinates of a figure in an image or of a material body consists of, first, finding the coordinates of image transition points when a scanning is effected from two directions that meet at right angles with respect to each other relative to the image, and then examining the continuity of these coordinate values, in order to obtain contour coordinates as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No 111786/1982.
According to the above prior art, the image transition points must be extracted in both the horizontal and vertical directions, which results in a great processing quantity to cover the whole surface of the image. After the coordinates of image transition points are extracted, furthermore, a tracing is effected using a mask on a coordinate table which also requires an extended processing time.